Traveling to Iquitos by Boat, 31/10-4/11 2025

31 October — Friday

First night ever sleeping in a hammock, I’m not convinced. It was not particularly comfortable.

As written in my previous post, yesterday I made my way to Yurimaguas, boarded the Eduardo boat heading for Iquitos. It was supposed to depart at 18:00 yesterday. We did not depart until 13:30 today, meaning I have spent almost an entire day on the boat doing basically nothing.

The boat is a shared passenger ferry and cargo ship. It transports livestock (cows, pigs and chickens), food, building equipment, home appliances, etc. In terms of passengers it is me and about 20 Peruvians.

Finally the jungle cruise adventure commences. It is suppose to be roughly two full days to Iquitos. That is two full days of lying in a hammock and watching the jungle, birds, the occasional, what I believe to be, manatees and pink dolphins, and all of the many small settlements located along the river, engaging in agriculture and fishing from what I can tell. Surprisingly many of the settlements have their own cell tower. I actually have pretty good coverage on a river in the middle of nowhere, whereas when I’m traveling by land as soon as I leave the big cities I have no coverage. Ironic.

1 November — Saturday

New day, same thing. The boat continues down the river and I continue enjoying the surroundings. Today it also makes a few short stops along settlements to offload supplies.

Breakfast on the boat included sugar water with white bread. Lunch was rice with spaghetti and a tiny piece of chicken. For dinner they served water with a tiny piece of chicken. Needless to say the food is shit. I will fast tomorrow until we reach Iquitos. The food the crew is getting served actually looks pretty good, shame the passengers are not served the same.

Slowly traveling along a mighty river in the Amazon is an interesting experience, although at the end of the day, I’m starting to get a bit bored — you should probably do this adventure with a friend. Good thing we will arrive in Iquitos tomorrow. Also, I’m a bit sick of seeing plastic floating around every second. The Peruvians truly treat the river as their personal garbage dump.

2 November — Sunday

Another day in the jungle. During the night we entered the famous Amazon river. If one would like it is possible to continue the river cruise far into Brazil.

We arrive in Iquitos at noon. Docking in Iquitos is like parking in France, you push the other boats to the side until a large enough opening appears.

After I have disembarked, I walk a bit in Iquitos to get a feel for the city. I thought Tarapoto was the town of tuk-tuks, but I was wrong. Iquitos is full of tuk-tuks driving around in some sort of makeshift 4-way highway (there are no specified lanes). There are little to no cars, which makes sense after all, as no roads lead to Iquitos. The only way to get to Iquitos is by boat or airplane.

I quickly determine that Iquitos is a dirty and not very interesting town so I hoop on a public bus that takes me almost all the way to my hotel. It is a nice hotel in the outskirts of Iquitos where I will sleep in my own bungalow. I also find very nice company, a french guy who has been in Ecuador for 2 months and just recently arrived in Peru. In Peru he will participate in a spiritual and traditional medicine 6-week long course before going back to Ecuador where he hopes to find permanent work. He tells me that Ecuador is much dirtier (more trash) than Peru. At least in the big cities. I guess Ecuador is stricken off my lists of countries to visit.

Tomorrow, I will be taking a 2-day jungle tour with IZI Peru. My plane departs on Tuesday at 22:00 so I do not have time to get the lay of the land myself, a tour is my best option to actually see something.

3 November — Monday

I’m picked-up in the airport by a tuk-tuk, guess I have to ride in the satanical machine once more. The driver takes me to the main office in town, where I met up with the other participants; 2 ladies, Ani and Paula, from Mexico and 1 guy, Eric, from Holland.

At the port where the boat wait for us they are serving grilled worms. I just have to try some. It was among the best food I have had in all of Peru, really really good.

Then we set off in the boat to where the Amazon river meets the Nanay river. Where the rivers meets there is a distinct change in color. The Amazon river is brown and the Nanay river is black.

We continue to visit the Yaguas tribe, an indigenous people living in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. They tell us a bit about their culture and history, teach us to dance, and let us try the blow gun they use for hunting. It was very touristy.

As I understood, part of the tribe walked 4 months from Ecuador through the jungle to Iquitos to find work within tourism. They do not actually live at the place where we visit, but much further into the jungle far away from all modern sounds and disturbances.

Then we visit a monkey rescue center. Many monkeys are illegally caught and sold on the Iquitos black market. Since the monkeys often have lived with families before being rescued they are domesticated and very friendly. I had several different monkey, by themselves, jumping and sitting my shoulders and head.

Back to the boat to go to another zoo/animal rescue center that has turtles, anacondas, sloths, and various birds.

Then we went to a bar and sampled some local traditional liquor. Specifically we sampled 7 Raices — liquor made from 7 different types of roots and barks — Camu Camu, Jengibre, and a mix of all three. I generally do not consume liquor, and it has been over a year since I had any at all, but all these drinks were delicious. The liquor was strong but there were also so much other flavors that it was far from overwhelming.

I also got a local traditional made cream, called Dragonblood for the open wound on my knee.

Back to the boat again to go to the jungle lodge where we have an absolutely delicious and late lunch. I also get to speak some Swedish as there is a family from Sweden staying at the lodge. The family are in Peru to visit their son that are studying finance in Lima for one semester.

After lunch we went for dolphin spotting and a bath in the Amazon river. We saw som dolphin fins but nothing too interesting.

When we return to the lodge, we go for 1 hour night walk in the jungle to see some spiders, scorpions, frogs, and mantises. Then dinner awaits, it was ok.

4 November — Tuesday

Up at 05:00 to go to the boat to see the sunrise from the Amazon river. Unfortunately, it was very foggy and we did not see any sunrise. We did, however, spot many colorful birds including two species of kingfishers.

After breakfast went fishing, I caught four smalls piranhas. The Piranhas start biting immediately as you through in the bait, but it is relatively difficult to hook them. Despite being small the piranhas still bite hard, and we are not allowed to unhook them ourselves, which I completely disregard. While fishing we also got a very good view of some pink dolphins. And we found a tarantula.

Then back to the lodge for lunch and “free play” until we go back to Iquitos, from where I take the public bus to the airport — where I made a new friend — board my flight heading for Lima at 22:00, and find a nice and quiet place to sleep at Lima airport. My flight going to Costa Rica does not leave until 12:35 tomorrow. Good night and good bye Peru.

Tours are really not my cup of tea, I like exploring and doing things myself. Still, I had an enjoyable time during the tour, but two days are enough. One very positive thing about the tour, however, is that I met very many interesting people to converse with.

My Thoughts on Peru

I have had a great time during my six weeks in Peru, I’m happy I came and I regret nothing. However, I do not feel like returning. The bottom line is that Peru as a country is simply too dirty for me. Hopefully, the Peruvians cleans up their act in the future. They have the potential to have a beautiful country.

That said, as soon as I have been far away from any bigger tourist spots or cities. It has been much cleaner, many of the smaller towns have had such a simple thing as garbage cans, and people use them. Also, in the smaller towns everyone knows everyone, the people are super friendly and helpful, and it feels much safer, not that I have ever felt unsafe in Peru.

If I would travel to Peru or a neighboring similar country in the future, I would definitely opt for a car so I can reach many more smaller communities, go places few people reach, and bring more stuff 🙂 I want my climbing equipment, my kayak, more clean cloths etc. Ultimately, a car means freedom, to go wherever I want whenever I want.

Lastly, maybe a bit controversial, but I do not like the Peruvian food. And a heads-up, if a Peruvian says “10 minutes” it means at least an hour.